The invention concerns a lockable rear view mirror assembly for commercial vehicles, in particular, for buses.
For buses, more and more attention-getting mirror designs are being employed. At least one of these shows a mirror construction installed far forward, extending outwardly from the upper ends of the A-columns of the bus body. In the case of these outlying designs—the so-called “horn mirrors”—a main mirror and supplementary mirrors are integrated for the driver's supervision of the entry area and the front zone which is not visible to the said driver.
A representation of such a horn shaped rearview mirror assembly has been brought into public knowledge by DE-44 29 604 A1. Another such horn shaped rearview mirror assembly is known from EP-A-0 865 967. The latter encompasses a support arm, mountable on the vehicle body having a carrying tubular structure as the basic element, a main mirror in a housing fastened on the free end of the tubular structure, and an advantageous motorized, adjustable mirror pane located in said housing. Further, EP-A-0 865 967 discloses a molded component, which supports supplementary mirrors and envelopes as a cover the tubular structure between its body end and the main mirror.
In this known rearview mirror assembly, the main mirror with its housing and the support arm with the molded component, along with the therein integrated supplementary mirror, make up two separate construction components, which are connected with one another. This two-part structure leads to certain limitations in the design of such horn shaped rearview mirrors and likewise leads to a sectional structure. Moreover, the mounting of such a horn shaped mirror becomes complex through the multi-part assembly.